A Daily Dose of Mischief

Last week a friend brought our family some very delicious cookies. By the end of the night only six cookies remained. During the getting-ready-for-bed commotion, we heard him counting the cookies. When he realized there were seven of us and only six cookies, we overheard him selflessly exclaim, "Oh! I guess one of the adults doesn't get another cookie."

When I posted about #4 aka K winning the coloring contest last week, we didn't have his winning picture. Yesterday he brought it home from school, so I scanned it to share with you! A picture is worth a thousand words as they say...pretty good for a five year old.

The other day at dinner #2 was asking us if the boys' shortness is inherited (a couple of the boys are a little shorter than average, but they aren't really that short). I told him that since none of the men in our family have reached six feet tall, it probably would be the same for the boys. Then I mentioned that you have to be over six feet tall to be considered tall for a man. #4 piped up with: "So Dad's not really a man!" I think he misunderstood what I said...

#4 won a coloring contest at school that was sponsored by the fire department. His picture was chosen as the best in his class and as a prize he got to ride a firetruck to school today! He was pretty excited about the whole thing. Here are a couple of pictures... D got to ride along too! A perk of parenthood! Here is #4 all buckled in!

The other day #3 and #4 were washing dishes together and #4 was singing a song from Blues Clues. #3 threw water on him to get him to stop singing the song. #4 cried. D asked them what was going on and #3 said he threw water on #4 to get him to stop singing that baby song. D: Thats not how you get him to stop. #3: Yes it is, he isn't singing it anymore. He's crying instead. Logic my friends...

I have written a couple of times in the past about having pet snails . In fact we even asked for suggestions on what to name the two snails we found and adopted a couple of months ago. I apologize for not getting back about the name decision...there were just so many good choices that we never really narrowed it down. However, recent events in the lives of our snails have made me realize that they needed names...so we decided to go with John's suggestion of Esc and Argot...even though we have no intentions of eating them. A week or so ago I went in to feed the snails and noticed that one of them had been digging way down into the dirt in their fishbowl. Right on the outside corner I could see something through the glass. I realized that it was a clutch of small white eggs. Esc and Argot were parents! As the days progressed we noticed more holes and more clutches of eggs. There are three sets for sure, and we are fairly certain there is another set that we had not been able to see f...

I just realized I haven't blogged on this blog for over ten days...the horror! Actually I have just been very sick and mostly in bed for the last week. Because I was in bed I didn't hear the boys say as many cute things as I normally would. Update on #4...the mole biopsy came back clean...so yay ! And he will have that lovely curved scar to show for it the rest of his life! We went to my sister's house yesterday for her annual pumpkin carving party. The kids dress up in their costumes, and we all carve pumpkins and eat good food. Its great fun for all. We actually don't really take the kids Trick or Treating...we just have a family movie night and eat junk food and have fun together. The pumpkin party is like their Halloween so the dressing up is there. Being sick, I had a hard time getting their costumes together but we made do. Here are a few pics. Jango Fett vs the Jedi... #1 being the good sport he is decided to go as a black hole at the last minute... What was ...

#4 had a mole removed from the side of his head today. It was a relatively small mole, but somewhat new, and had a few things about it that were flags to the Doctor, so they wanted us to have it removed just to be safe. We had to be at the hospital at 7:30 this morning. This involved getting everyone up early and dropping the three older boys off at a friend's house so they could ride the bus to school. Then we were off to the hospital with #4 and #5 in tow. Once we got there, they checked us in right away, took us down to weigh #4 and take his blood pressure (#5 kind of freaked out about that because for some reason he thought they were trying to electrocute #4 with the blood pressure machine). Then it was a waiting game. I had brought some paper, pens and stickers and #4 drew some ninja turtles, while he and #5 watched an episode of Clifford. Finally the doctor showed up, and it was time for the surgery. D took #5 to the foyer (D doesn't like blood) and I stayed with #...

Once upon a time there was a glowing green house, and there was this guy with black hair, and a stick, and glasses, and his name was Harry Potter. So Harry Potter went into the glowing green house, and he looked up, and didn't see anything, and then a big oreo smashed him and he was NEVER SEEN AGAIN...

My kids seem to need a lot of attention. Most kids are that way, but it seems like my kids really want the attention right when I am feeling too busy to give it to them. Notice I said the word "feeling". Often this feeling comes when I am trying to make dinner and they are all clustered around me begging for food, dying of boredom, or just bugging me. Last week I was making Cheeseburger Soup (which is VERY good by the way). The boys were restless so I put some of them to work. We have four potato peelers (because if they think something is fun and you never tell them its actually work, they will enjoy it more!) so some of them started peeling potatoes, and some of them started peeling carrots. My four year old is pretty good at peeling carrots (except for the few inches he misses on one end). Their least favorite part is picking up all the peelings that missed the garbage can. I have a small hand cranked food processor. I have seen them at the store advertised as sals...

#3 came to me today and said, casually, but in all seriousness, "Mom, did you know our towels, the towels we use to dry off after we take a bath or a shower?...are like tissues for Heavenly Father and Jesus..." I said, "Why is that?" #3 answered, looking at me like I was weird, "Because they are bigger than us..."

#3: Technically, everyone is allergic to being burned up. So true...

Today after I gave the boys their afternoon snack #1 said, "Thank you for clogging up our innards with sodium and sugar." I think that just a plain old thank you should have been enough.

We spent Friday and Saturday visiting family in Vancouver. It was nice to have a little time away from home and to visit with extended family. Saturday morning we were eating breakfast at Grandpa L's house, and #4 just kept eating and eating. He had some omelet, some toast with jelly, juice, and two bowls of cereal. He kept on asking for more. Somebody commented about where he was putting all that food and he said, with a HUGE grin, "Its okay! I have lots of empty space, up HERE!" and he tapped his head. We all burst out laughing. He tried to change the empty space to his arm, but it was already too late. That kid isn't doing much to change the stereotype of blonds .

We stopped ordering school pictures a couple of years ago. This was mostly because school pictures just plain SUCK. They rush the kids through there like cattle and as long as their eyes are open, the rest of the picture doesn't matter. The first year we moved here the photographer that does the school pictures forgot to clean his camera lens and every kid had this thing on their face that looked like a mole or dirt...EVERY kid. We sent our kids for retakes, but due to a miscommunication #1 didn't get to do the retake and we were stuck. I think we returned the pictures, but I am not sure. Aside from dirt encrusted lenses, there are the lovely vacant expressions, weird smiles and yes, even a snarl once that was deemed worthy by the photographer to be printed into school pictures. I haven't even gotten to the cost yet. The package we would normally purchase costs about $24.00 I can print the same number of pictures (minus the 8 useless mini pictures that are about the size o...

Two of them! A while back I wrote about our snail Claireford going the way of all the earth (i.e. he/she croaked). I also mentioned that after Claireford's untimely demise there was a mysterious tiny little slug-like creature in the tank. Thinking it may have been a baby snail with an undeveloped shell, I kept it for several weeks, but eventually I gave up on it being a snail and set it free. I know that snails and slugs are pretty much the same thing, but I just can't stomach the thought of feeding slugs for some reason. Snails, I can handle. Near the start of the school year I was walking home from the school with #3 and #4 and I chanced upon a snail crossing the sidewalk. I stopped the boys and had them come and look at it. My intention was to look at it, and then let it go on its slow but merry way. Then I saw a second snail just off of the sidewalk, and I couldn't resist. #1 was pretty sad when Claireford died ( Claireford is named after Cliff and Claire Hu...

The other day #4 and #5 were talking about what they want their job to be when they grow up. #4 said he would like to drive a car for a job, so I asked him what kind of a driving job he wanted. He decided that he really just wants to drive and was thrilled when I told him that most grown ups can drive and he doesn't have to get a job driving to do it. He then decided that he would really like to be "The one that cooks dinner" for his job as a grown up. #5 piped up at that point and said, "I want to be the one that plays with all the Thomas (the tank engine) toys when I grow up." I think its good to know what you want and what makes you really happy. I am sure cooking dinner and playing with trains will probably lose some of their allure as the boys get older, but for now I think they are both great aspirations.

A couple of weeks ago #3 asked me about who will get D's PDA when he is gone. I asked him what he meant, and he clarified that after D and I are really old and die, someone would get the PDA , and he wanted it to be him. Here I thought people didn't start fighting over their parent's estate until AFTER they were dead. I mentioned the PDA /death conversation at dinner that night, and it turned into a full blown claiming of our items by each of the kids. I will tell you that none of the items that we would have thought of putting in our will (the grandfather clock D's dad built for us, my Grandmother's painting , the piano, etc) were mentioned. There was a brief struggle over who would get my cake mix doctor cookbook though and #4 decided he wanted our van when we are gone. #5 was content to say that he wanted all of the Thomas the Tank Engine Toys (which technically, are already his). Hopefully D and I will be around for a little longer, at least until #5 outgr...

The other day D asked #2 if he would bring him a Philips screwdriver. #2, always eager to help out said "Sure" and went off on his quest to find the needed tool. A little while later #2 came back and said, "Sorry Dad, I couldn't find a Philips, all I could find was a Stanley screwdriver."

Just the other day #4 was noticing how grown-ups (Mommies to be specific) get to do "Whatever they want." We recently had this conversation. #4: I like being a kid better. Me: Better than what? #4: Being a grown-up. Me: Why? #4: Because I get to go to school. I guess I can stop worrying about whether he likes school or not.